GM Announces Start of Restructuring with 4,000 New Job Cuts

Early this week, General Motors confirmed that it has already started cutting 4,000 salaried jobs as it planned to do last year. According to GM Spokesperson Pat Morrissey, company leadership plans to directly communicate with all employees in regards to the timing and the procedure of the looming job cuts, which are part of its restructuring strategy to save the company $2.5 billion this year. Some cuts have already been made.

Morrissey comments, “These actions are necessary to secure the future of the company, including preserving thousands of jobs in the US and globally. We are taking action now while the overall economy and job market are strong, increasing the ability of impacted employees to continue to advance in their careers, should they choose to do so,” adding also that the bulk of the cuts should finally come through within the next two weeks.

As a matter of fact, some employees within General Motors’ Detroit headquarters already received an email on Monday morning as a simple notification about the “restructuring activities” with more information to follow.

Accordingly, Morrissey goes on to say, “This will be implemented staff-by-staff and location-by-location over the next couple of weeks. We’re not going into which departments and when and where it’s happening. Some staffs have already implemented this over the last weeks, but there’s more of it this week and next week.”

GM has also said that they have been in contact with several Fortune 500 companies and other employers who might be interested in hiring those who are losing their jobs at GM by the end of the month. Essentially, GM is providing outplacement services to ensure that all those who are impacted—and would like some help—will get it. In addition, GM has offered severance packages to employees, but the value of these will depend on years of service, which was the same offer as the cuts made last year. According to the buyout offer, those employees who are eligible could receive a maximum of six months of pay as well as six months of health care.